Swansea's promotion hopes took another blow on Friday evening as they fell to a late defeat against Birmingham City at St Andrew's.

The hosts missed a first half penalty when Lukas Jutkiewicz blasted the ball straight at Freddie Woodman but they would not pass up that opportunity again, with Scott Hogan snatching all three points with a late penalty to hand Lee Bowyer's men a significant boost in their survival hopes. 

The result means Steve Cooper's side have now lost their last three games in a row and sit nine points behind Watford in the race for second spot after the Hornets scraped past Sheffield Wednesday earlier in the day.

One man who particularly disappointed with his performance against Birmingham was right-back Connor Roberts.

The Welsh international, who was incidentally sent off for his country in their 1-0 win against Czech Republic recently, has been one of the more consistent performers in Cooper's side so far this season but has unfortunately seen his form drop as we approach the business end of the campaign.

As per SofaScore, the 25-year-old earned a 6.1/10 match rating for his display, which was the worst of any player who started the game.

Roberts was guilty of giving away Birmingham's first penalty of the game and, whilst it was soft, the defender's reaction told you that he knew he had made a mistake.

However, it wasn't just that which marked him out as one of Swansea's worst performers on another difficult evening for the south Wales club, as he completed just 15 of his 28 passes during the game, resulting in a less than impressive 58% pass accuracy.

For context, the right-back has averaged a 74.1% pass accuracy in the Championship so far this season, which emphasises that he was nowhere near his best against Birmingham.

The Swansea academy graduate also lost possession on 23 occasions during the game, which was the most of any player on the pitch other than Jake Bidwell on the opposite flank, who lost the ball 26 times in the 90 minutes.

Roberts also struggled from a physical perspective, as he failed to win any of his five aerial duels during the game, whilst he won just one of his three ground duels, whereas Bidwell won five of his seven duels in total.

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Therefore, you could definitely argue that Roberts cost Cooper with another disappointing display on Friday which all but ends Swansea's hopes of automatic promotion this season.

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